§ 47.14.
f. =During the Period of the Arian Controversy.=
a. =Jul. Firmicus Maternus.= Under this name we have a
treatise _De errore profanarum religionum_, addressed to
the sons of Constantine the Great, in which the writer
combats heathenism upon the Euhemerist theory (which
traces the worship of the heathen gods from the deifying
of famous ancestors), but besides reclaims many myths as
corruptions of the biblical history, and shows that the
violent overthrow of all idolatry is the sacred duty of
a Christian ruler from God’s command to Joshua to destroy
utterly the Canaanites.
b. =Lucifer of Calăris [Calaris]= in Sardinia, was a
violent, determined, and stubborn zealot for the Nicene
doctrine, whose excessive severity against the penitent
Arians and semi-Arians drove him into schism (§ 50, 8).
He died in A.D. 371. In his tract, _Ad Constantium
Augustum pro S. Athansio_, lb. ii., written in A.D. 360,
he upbraids the emperor with his faults so bitterly as
to describe him as a reckless apostate, antichrist, and
Satan. He boldly acknowledged the authorship and, in
prospect of a death sentence, wrote in A.D. 361 his
consolatory treatise, _Moriendum esse pro filio Dei_.
The early death of the emperor, however, permitted his
return from exile (§ 50, 2, 4), where he had written
_De regibus apostaticis_ and _De non conveniendo cum
hæreticis_.
c. =Marius Victorinus= from Africa, often confounded with
the martyr of the same name (§ 31, 12), was converted
to Christianity when advanced in life, about A.D. 360,
while occupying a distinguished position as a heathen
rhetorician in Rome. He gave proof of his zeal as a
neophyte by the composition of controversial treatises
against the Manichæans, _Ad Justinum Manichæum_, and
against the Arians, _Lb. iv. adv. Arium, De generatione
divina ad Candidum, De_ ὁμοουσίῳ _recipiendo_. In his
treatise, _De verbis scripturæ_, Gen. i. 5, he shows
that the creative days began not with the evening, but
with the morning. He composed three hymns _de Trinitate_,
and an epic poem on the seven brothers, the Maccabees.
d. =Hilary of Poitiers=--_Hilarius Pictavienses_--styled
the Athanasius of the West, and made _doctor ecclesiæ_
by Pius IX. in A.D. 1851, was sprung from a noble pagan
family of Poitiers (Pictavium). With wife and daughter
he embraced Christianity, and was soon thereafter,
about A.D. 350, made bishop of his native city. In
A.D. 356, however, as a zealous opponent of Arianism,
he was banished to Phrygia, from which he returned in
A.D. 360. Two years later he travelled to Milan, in
order if possible to win from his error the bishop of
that place, Auxentius, a zealous Arian. That bishop,
however, obtained an imperial edict which obliged him
instantly to withdraw. He died in A.D. 366. The study
of Origen seems to have had a decided influence upon
his theological development. His strength lay in the
speculative treatment of the groundworks of doctrine. At
the same time he is the first exegete proper among the
Western fathers writing the Latin language. He follows
exactly the allegorical method of the Alexandrians. His
works embrace commentaries on the Psalms and the Gospel
of Matthew, several polemical lectures (§ 50, 6), and
his speculative dogmatic masterpiece _de Trinitate_
in xii. books.
e. =Zeno, bishop of Verona=, who died about A.D. 380,
left behind ninety-three _Sermones_ which, in beautiful
language and spirited style, treat of various subjects
connected with faith and morals, combat paganism and
Arianism, and eagerly recommend virginity and monasticism.
f. =Philaster=, bishop of Brescia, contemporary of Zeno, in
his book _De hæresibus_, described in harsh and obscure
language, in an uncritical fashion and with an extremely
loose application of the word heresy, 28 pre-Christian
and 128 post-Christian systems of error.
g. =Martin of Tours=,[146] son of a soldier, had before
baptism, but after his heart had been filled with the
love of Christ, entered the Roman cavalry. Once, legend
relates, he parted his military cloak into two pieces in
order to shield a naked beggar from the cold, and on the
following night the Lord Jesus appeared to him clothed in
this very cloak. In his eighteenth year he was baptized,
and for some years thereafter attached himself to Hilary
of Poitiers, and then went to his parents in Pannonia.
He did not succeed in converting his father, but he
was successful with his mother and many of the people.
Scourged and driven away by the Arian party which there
prevailed, he turned to Milan where, however, he got
just as little welcome from the Arian bishop Auxentius.
He then lived some years on the island of Gallinaria,
near Genoa. When Hilary returned from banishment to
Pictavium, he followed him there, and founded in the
neighbourhood a monastery, the earliest in Gaul. He was
guilefully decoyed to Tours, and forced to mount the
episcopal chair there in A.D. 375. He converted whole
crowds of heathen peasants, and, according to the
legend given by Sulpicius Severus and Gregory of Tours
(§ 90, 2), wrought miracle after miracle. But he was
himself with his holy zeal, his activity in doing good,
his undoubted power over men’s hearts, and a countenance
before which even the emperor quailed (§ 54, 2), the
greatest and the most credible miracle. He died about
A.D. 400 in the monastery of Marmontiers [Marmoutiers],
which he had founded out from Tours. His tomb was
one of the most frequented places of pilgrimage. He
was wholly without scholarly culture, but the force
of intellect with which he was endowed lent him a
commanding eloquence. The _Confessio de s. Trinitate_
attributed to him is not genuine.
§ 47.15.
g. =Ambrose, bishop of Milan=, sprung from a prominent Roman
family, was governor of the province of Milan. After the
death of the Arian Auxentius in A.D. 374 violent quarrels
broke out over the choice of a successor. Then a child is
said to have cried from the midst of the crowd “Ambrose is
bishop,” and all the people, Arians as well as Catholics,
agreed. All objection was vain. Up to this time only a
catechumen, he received baptism, distributed his property
among the poor, and eight days after mounted the episcopal
chair. His new office he administered with truly apostolic
zeal, a father of the poor, a protector of all oppressed,
an unweariedly active pastor, a powerful opponent of heresy
and heathenism. His eloquence, which had won him a high
reputation in the forum, was yet more conspicuous in the
service of the church. To ransom the prisoners he spared not
even the furniture of the church. To a peculiarly winning
friendliness and gentleness he added great strength of
character, which prevented him being checked in his course
by any respect of persons, or by any threatening and danger.
He so decidedly opposed the intrigues of the Arian Empress
Justina, during the minority of her son Valentinian II.,
that she, powerless to execute her wrath, was obliged to
desist from her endeavours (§ 50, 4). With Theodosius the
Great he stood in the highest esteem. When the passionate
emperor had ordered a fearful massacre without distinction of
rank, age and sex, without enquiry as to guilt or innocence,
of the inhabitants of Thessalonica on account of a tumult
in which a general and several officers had been murdered,
Ambrose wrote him a letter with an earnest call to repentance,
and threatened him with exclusion from the communion of the
church and its services. The emperor, already repenting of
his hastiness, took patiently the rebuke administered, but
did nothing to atone for his crime. Some time after he went
as usual to church, but Ambrose met him at the entrance of
the house of God and refused him admission. For eight months
the emperor refrained from communion; then he applied for
absolution, which was granted him, after he had publicly done
penance before the congregation and promised never in future
to carry out a death sentence within thirty days of its being
pronounced. Theodosius afterwards declared that Ambrose was
the only one truly deserving the name of a bishop. Ambrose
was also a zealous promoter of monasticism in the West.
In his sermons he so powerfully recommended virginity
that many families forbade their daughters attending them.
He deserves special credit for his contributions to the
liturgical services (_Officium Ambrosianum_, _Cantus Ambr._,
Hymn Composition, § 59, 4-6). On all dogmatic questions he
strongly favoured the realism of the North African school,
while in exegesis he did not surmount the allegorical
method of the Alexandrians. To the department of morals
and ascetics belong the 3 bks. _De Officiis Ministrorum_,
a Christian construction of Cicero’s celebrated work and
the most important of all Ambrose’s writings; also several
treatises in recommendation of virginity. The book _De
Mysteriis_ explains baptism and the Lord’s Supper to the
neophytes. The 5 bks. _De fide_, the 3 bks. _De Spiritu S._
and the tract _De incarnatîonis sacramento_, treat of the
fundamental doctrines of the Christian faith in opposition
to Arians, Sabellians, Apollinarians, etc. These are
somewhat dependent upon the Greeks, especially Athanasius,
Didymus and Basil. His expositions of Old Testament histories
(_Hexaëmeron_, _De Paradiso_, _De Cain et Abel_, _De Noë
et arca_, _De Abraham_, _De Jacob et anima_, etc.) are
allegorical and typical in the highest degree. More important
are his _Sermones_ and 92 Epistles. But all his writings are
distinguished by their noble, powerful and popular eloquence.
h. =Ambrosiaster= is the name given to an unknown writer
whose allegorizing Commentary on Paul’s Epistles was long
attributed to Ambrose. This work, highly popular on account
of its pregnant brevity, was perhaps the joint work of
several writers. In its earliest portions it belongs to
the age of Damasus, bishop of Rome, who died in A.D. 384,
who is named as a contemporary. Augustine names a Hilary,
not otherwise known, as author of a passage quoted from it.
i. =Pacianus=,[147] bishop of Barcelona, who died about
A.D. 390, wrote in a clear style and correct Latinity three
Epistles against the Novatians, from the first of which,
_De Catholico nomine_, is borrowed the beautiful saying:
_Christianus mihi nomen est, Catholicus cognomen_. He also
wrote a _Liber exhortatorius ad pœnitentiam_ and a _Sermo
de baptismo_.
§ 47.16. =During the Period of Origenistic Controversy.=
a. =Jerome=[148]--_Sophronius Eusebius Hieronymus_--of Stridon
in Dalmatia, received his classical training under the
grammarian Donatus at Rome. In A.D. 360 he was baptized by
bishop Liberius, but afterwards fell into sensual excesses
which he atoned for by penitential pilgrimages to the
catacombs. During a journey through Gaul and the provinces
of the Rhine and Moselle he seems to have formed the fixed
resolve to devote himself to theology and an ascetic life.
Then for more than a year he stayed at Aquileia, A.D. 372,
where he formed an intimate friendship with Rufinus. He next
undertakes a journey to the East. At Antioch in a vision,
during a violent fever, placed before the throne of the
judge of all, having answered the question Who art thou? by
the confession that he was a Christian, he heard the words
distinctly uttered: Thou liest! thou art a Ciceronian and no
Christian! He then sentenced himself to severe castigation
and promised with an oath to give up the reading of the
heathen classics which he had so much enjoyed. He afterwards
indeed excused himself from the fulfilment of this twofold
obligation; but this had sealed his devotion to an ascetic
life, and the desert of Chalcis, the Syrian Thebaid, became
for him during many years the school of ascetic discipline.
Worn out with privations, penances and sensual temptations
he returned in A.D. 379 to Antioch, where he was ordained
presbyter but without any official district being assigned.
Urged by Gregory of Nazianzum [Nazianzen], he next spent
several years in Constantinople. From A.D. 382 to A.D. 385
he again lived in Rome, where bishop Damasus honoured him
with his implicit confidence. This aroused against him the
envy and enmity of many among the Roman clergy, while at
the same time his zeal for the spread of monasticism and
virginity, as well as his ascetic influence with women, drew
upon him the hatred of many prominent families (§ 44, 4). On
the death of his episcopal patron in A.D. 384 his position
in Rome thus became untenable. He now returned to the East,
visited all the holy places in Palestine, and also made
an excursion to Alexandria where he stayed for four weeks
in the school of the blind Didymus. He then settled down at
Bethlehem, founded there with the means of his Roman lady
friends an establishment for monks, over which he presided
till his death in A.D. 420; and an establishment for
nuns over which St. Paula presided, who with her daughter
Eustochium had accompanied him from Rome. As to his share
in the Origenistic controversies into which he allowed
himself to be drawn, see § 51, 2. His character was not
without defects: vanity, ambition, jealousy, passionateness,
impatience and intense bitterness in debate, are only all
too apparent in his life. But where these, as well as his
scrupulous anxiety for the maintaining of a reputation
for unwavering orthodoxy and by zeal for monasticism
and asceticism, did not stand in the way, we often find
in him an unexpected clearness and liberality of view.
Comp. § 17, 6; 57, 6; 59, 1; 61, 1. To the instructions
of the Jew Bar Hanina he was indebted for his knowledge
of Hebrew and Chaldee. The greatest and most enduring
service was rendered to the study of holy scripture by his
pioneer labours in this direction. He is at his weakest
in his dogmatic works, which mostly are disfigured by
immoderately passionate polemic. In exegesis he represents
the grammatico-historical method, but nevertheless
frequently falls back again into allegorico-mystical
explanations. His style is pure, flowing and elegant, but
in polemic often reckless and coarse even to vulgarity. In
the department of exegesis the first place belongs to his
translation of the bible (§ 59, 1). We have also a number
of Commentaries--on Genesis, Ecclesiastes, Isaiah, Jeremiah,
Ezekiel, Daniel, Minor Prophets, Matthew, Galatians,
Ephesians, Philippians and Philemon. His _Onomasticon s. de
situ et nominibus locorum Hebr._ is a Latin reproduction of
the Τοπικά of Eusebius. In the department of dogmatics we
have polemics against Lucifer of Calaris (§ 50, 3), against
Helvidius, Jovinian and Vigilantius (§ 63, 2), against John
of Jerusalem (§ 51, 2) and in several treatises against
Rufinus, and finally against the Pelagians (§ 53, 4). In
the department of history we have his Latin adaptation and
continuation of the second part of the Eusebian Chronicle,
his _Catalogus Scriptorum ecclest. s. de viris illustr._,
which tells in anecdotal form about the lives and writings
of biblical and ecclesiastical writers, 135 in number,
from Peter down to himself, with the avowed purpose of
proving the falseness of the reproach that only ignorant
and uncultured men had embraced Christianity. It was
afterwards continued by the Gaul =Gennadius= of Marseilles
down to the end of the fifth century. Finally, the romancing
legendary sketches of the lives of the famous monks Paul of
Thebes (§ 39, 4), Hilarion (§ 44, 3) and Malchus, were added.
His 150 Epistles are extremely important for the church
history of his times. Of his translations of the Greek
fathers only those of Didymus, _De Spiritu S._ and that
of 70 _Homilies_ of Origen, are now extant.
§ 47.17.
b. =Tyrannius Rufinus= of Aquileia after receiving baptism
lived for a long time in monastic retirement. His enthusiasm
for monasticism and asceticism led him in A.D. 373 to Egypt.
At Alexandria he spent several years in intercourse with
Didymus. He contracted there that enthusiastic admiration
of Origen which made his after life so full of debate and
strife. He next went in A.D. 379 to Jerusalem, where bishop
John ordained him presbyter. Here he found Jerome, with whom
he had become acquainted at Aquileia, and the two friends
were brought more closely together from their mutual love for
Origen, although afterwards this was to prove the occasion of
the most bitter enmity (§ 51, 2). About A.D. 397 he returned
to Italy. He died in A.D. 410. His literary activity was
mainly directed to the transplanting of the writings of
Greek fathers to Latin soil. To his zeal in this direction
we owe the preservation of Origen’s most important work Περὶ
ἀρχῶν, _De principiis_, and of no fewer than 124 Homilies.
The former, indeed, has been in many places altered in an
arbitrary manner. He also translated several Homilies of
Basil and Gregory Nazianzen, Pamphilus’ Apology for Origen,
the Pseudo-Clementine Recognitions (§ 28, 3), etc. There
are extant of his own works: the Continuation of his Latin
reproduction of the Church History of Eusebius, down to
A.D. 388, the romancing _Historia eremitica s. Vitæ Patrum_,
biographies of 33 saints of the Nitrian desert (§ 51, 1),
an _Apologia pro fide sua_, the _Invectivæ Hieron._ in
2 bks. the treatise _De benedictionibus Patriarcharum_,
an exposition of Genesis xlix. in the spirit and style of
Origen, and an _Expositio symboli apost._
c. =Sulpicius Severus=[149] from Aquitania in Gaul, had gained
great reputation by his eloquence as an advocate, when the
death of his young wife disgusted him with the world, and
led him to withdraw into a monastery. He died about A.D. 410.
In his _Chronica_ or _Historia sacra_ (§ 5, 1), a summary
of biblical and ecclesiastical history, he imitates not
unsuccessfully the eloquence of Sallust, so that he has
been called “the Christian Sallust.” His _Vita_ of Martin
of Tours is a panegyric overflowing with reports of miracles.
The three dialogues on the virtues of Eastern Monks and on
the merits of St. Martin, may be regarded as a supplement to
the _Vita_.
d. =Petrus [Peter] Chrysologus= is the name by which Peter,
bishop of Ravenna, is best known. He also received the title
_Chrysostomus Latinorum_. He died in A.D. 450. Among the
176 _Sermones_ ascribed to him, the discourses expository
of the baptismal formula are deserving of special mention.
Of his Epistles, one in Latin and Greek addressed to Eutyches
(§ 52, 4) is still preserved, in which the writer warns
Eutyches against doctrinal errors.
§ 47.18. =The Hero of the Soteriological
Controversy.=--=Augustine=--_Aurelius Augustinus_--was born in
A.D. 354 at Tagaste in Numidia. From his pious mother Monica he
early received Christian religious impressions which, however,
were again in great measure effaced by his pagan father the
_Decurio_ Patricius. While he studied in Carthage, he gave way
to sensuality and worldly pleasure. Cicero’s Hortensius first
awakened again in him a longing after higher things. From about
A.D. 374 he sought satisfaction in the tenets of the Manichæan
sect, strongly represented in Africa, and for ten years he
continued a catechumen of that order. But here, too, at last
finding himself cruelly deceived in his struggle after the
knowledge of the truth, he would have sunk into the most utter
scepticism, had not the study of the Platonic philosophy still for
awhile held him back. In A.D. 383 he left Africa and went to Rome,
and in the following year he took up his residence in Milan as a
teacher of eloquence. An African bishop, once himself a Manichæan,
had comforted his anxious mother, who followed him hither, by
assuring her that the son of so many sighs and prayers could
not be finally lost. At Milan too the sermons of Ambrose made
an impression on Augustine’s heart. He now began diligently to
search the scriptures. At last the hour arrived of his complete
renewal of heart and life. After an earnest conversation with
his friend Alypius, he hastened into the solitude of the garden.
While agonizing in prayer he heard the words thrice repeated:
_Tolle, lege_! He took up the scriptures, and his eye fell upon
the passage Rom. xiii. 13, 14. This utterance of stern Christian
morality seemed as if written for himself alone, and from this
moment he received into his wounded spirit a peace such as he had
never known before. In order to prepare for baptism he withdrew
with his mother and some friends to the country house of one of
them, where scientific studies, pious exercises and conversations
on the highest problems of life occupied his time. Out of
these conversations sprang his philosophical writings. At
Easter A.D. 387 Ambrose baptized him, and at the same time his
illegitimate son Adeodatus, who not long afterwards died. His
return journey to Africa was delayed by the death of his mother
at Ostia, and at last, after almost a year’s residence in Rome,
he reached his old home again. In Rome he applied himself to
combat the errors of Manichæism, arguing with many of his old
companions whom he met there. After his return to Africa in
A.D. 388, he spent some years on his small patrimonial estate
at Tagaste engaged in scientific work. During a casual visit to
Hippo in A.D. 391 he was, in spite of all resistance, ordained
presbyter, and in A.D. 395 colleague of the aged and feeble
bishop Valerius, whose successor he became in the following year.
Now began the brilliant period of his career, in which he stands
forth as a pillar of the church and the centre of all theological
and ecclesiastical life throughout the whole Western world. In
A.D. 400 began his battle against the Donatists (§ 63, 1). And
scarcely had he brought this to a successful end in a religious
discussion at Carthage in A.D. 411, when he was drawn into a far
more important Soteriological controversy by Pelagius and his
followers (§ 53), which he continued till the close of his life.
His death occurred in A.D. 430 during the siege of Carthage by
the Vandals. He has written his own life in his _Confessiones_
(Engl. translat., Oxf., 1838; Edin., 1876). In the form of an
address to God he here unfolds before the Omniscient One his
whole past life with all its errors and gracious providences
in the language of prayer full of the holiest earnestness and
most profound humility, a lively commentary on the opening
words: _Magnus es, Domine, et laudabilis valde.... Fecisti nos
ad te, et inquietum est cor nostrum, donec requiescat in te._
The biography of his disciple Possidius may serve as a supplement
to the Confessions.--Augustine was the greatest, most powerful,
and most influential of all the fathers. In consequence of his
thoroughly Western characteristics he was indeed less perfectly
understood and appreciated in the East; but all the greater was
his reputation in the West, where the whole development of church
and doctrine seemed always to move about him as its centre. The
main field of his literary activity in consequence of his own
peculiar mental qualities, his philosophical culture, speculative
faculty, and dialectic skill, as well as the ecclesiastical
conflicts of his time, to which his most important works are
devoted, was Systematic Theology, Dogmatics and Ethics, Polemics
and Apologetics. He is weakest as an exegete; for he had little
interest in philological and grammatico-historical research into
the simple literal sense of scripture. He was unacquainted with
the original language of the Old Testament, and even the New
Testament he treats only in a popular way according to the Latin
translations. Neither does he deal much with the exegetical
foundations of dogmatics, which he rather develops from the
Christian consciousness by means of speculation and dialectic,
and from the proof of its meeting the needs of humanity. Over
against philosophy he insisted upon the independence and
necessity of faith as the presupposition and basis of all
religious knowledge. _Rationabiliter dictum est per prophetam:
Nisi credideretis non intelligetis. Credamus ut id quod credimus
intelligere valeamus._
§ 47.19. =Augustine’s Works.=
a. =Philosophical Treatises= belonging to the period preceding
his ordination. The 3 bks. _Contra Academicos_ combat
their main position that men cannot attain to any certain
knowledge; the treatise _De Vita beata_ shows that true
happiness consists in the knowledge of God; the 2 bks. _De
Ordine_ treat of the relation of good and evil in the divine
order of the world; the 2 bks. _Soliloquia_ are monologues
on the means and conditions of the knowledge of supernatural
truths, and contain beside the main question an Appendix _De
immortalitate animæ_, etc.
b. =Dogmatic Treatises.= The most important are: _De Trinitate_
in 15 bks. (Engl. transl., Edin., 1874), a speculative
dogmatic construction of the dogma, of great importance
for its historical development; _De doctrina christiana_
in 4 bks. (Engl. transl., Edin., 1875), of which the first
three bks. form a guide to the exposition of scripture after
the analogy of faith, while the 4th book shows how the truth
thus discovered is to be used (Hermeneutics and Homiletics);
finally, the two bks. _Retractationes_, written in his
last years, in which he passes an unfavourable judgment
on his earlier writings, and withdraws or modifies much in
them. Among his =Moral-ascetic writings= the bk. _De bono
conjugali_ is of special interest, called forth by Jovinian’s
utterances on non-meritoriousness of the unmarried state
(§ 62, 2); he admits the high value of Christian marriage,
but yet sees in celibacy genuinely chosen as a means to
holiness a higher step in the Christian life. Also the
bk. _De adulterinis conjugis_ against second marriages,
and two treatises _De Mendacium_ and _Contra Mendacium ad
Consentium_, which in opposition to the contrary doctrine
of the Priscillianists (§ 54, 2), unconditionally repudiates
the admissibility of equivocation.
c. =Controversial Treatises.= Of 11 treatises against the
Manichæans (§ 54, 1) the most important is that _C. Faustum_
in 33 bks. (Engl. transl., Edin., 1875), interesting as
reproducing in quotations the greater part of the last work
of this great champion of the Manichæans. Then came the
discussion with the Donatists (§ 63, 1), which he engaged
in with great vigour. We have ten treatises directed against
them (Engl. transl., Edin., 1873). Of far greater importance
was the conflict which soon after broke out against the
Pelagians and then against the semi-Pelagians (§ 53, 4, 5),
in which he wrote fourteen treatises (Engl. transl.,
3 vols., Edin., 1873-1876). Also the Arians, Priscillianists,
Origenists and Marcionites were combated by him in special
treatises, and in the bk. _De hæresibus_ he gave a summary
account of the various heresies that had come under his
notice.
d. Among his =Apologetical Treatises= against pagans and
Jews, by far the ablest and most important is the work _De
Civitate Dei_, in 22 bks., a truly magnificent conception
(Engl. transl., 2 vols., Edin., 1873), the most substantial
of all apologetical works of Christian antiquity, called
forth by the reproach of the heathens that the repeated
successes of the barbarians resulted from the weakening and
deteriorating influence of Christianity upon the empire.
The author repels this reproach in the first four bks.
by showing how the Roman empire had previously in itself
the seeds of decay in its godless selfishness, and thence
advancing immorality; Ilium was and continued pagan, but
its gods could not save it from destruction. Ilium’s Epigone,
haughty Rome, meets the same fate. It owed its power only to
God’s will and His government of the world, and to His using
it as a scourge for the nations. The next five books show
the corruption of the heathen religions and the inadequacy
of heathen philosophy. Then the last 12 bks. point out
the contrast between the kingdom of God and the kingdom
of the world in respect of their diverse foundations,
their entirely different motive powers, their historical
development and their ultimate disposal in the last judgment.
e. The most important and complete of his =Exegetical Works=
are the 12 bks. _De Genesi ad litteram_, a gigantic
commentary on the three first chapters of Genesis, which
in spite of its title very often leaves the firm ground
of the literal sense to revel in the airy regions of
spiritualistic and mystical expatiation. Of his _Sermones_,
400 are recognised as genuine (Engl. transl., Hom. on N.T.,
2 vols., Oxf., 1844 f.; Hom. on John and 1st John, 2 vols.,
Oxf., 1848; Comm. on Psalms, 6 vols., Oxf., 1847 f.; Harmony
of Evangelists, and Serm. on Mt., Edin., 1874; Commentary
on John, 2 vols., Edin., 1875). His correspondence still
preserved comprises 270 Epistles (Engl. transl., 2 vols.,
Edin., 1874, 1876).
§ 47.20. =Augustine’s Disciples and Friends.=
a. =Paulinus=, deacon of Milan, who wrote, at Augustine’s
request, the life of Ambrose, awakened in A.D. 411 the
Pelagian controversy by the charges which he made, and
took part in it himself by writing in A.D. 417 the _Libellus
c. Cœlestium ad Zosimum Papam_.
b. =Paulus [Paul] Orosius=, a Spanish presbyter, who visited
Augustine in Africa in A.D. 415 to urge him to combat
Priscillianism, took part with him there in his conflict
with the Pelagians. He has left behind a _Commonitorium de
errore Priscillianistarum et Origenistarum ad Augustinum_;
an _Apologeticus de arbitrii libertate c. Pelagium_ and
_Hist. adv. Paganos_ in 7 bks. The last named work was
written at Augustine’s urgent entreaty, and pursues in a
purely historical manner the same end which Augustine in his
_City of God_ sought to reach in a dogmatico-apologetic way.
c. =Marius Mercator= was a learned and acute layman, belonging
to the West, but latterly resident in Constantinople. He
made every effort to secure the condemnation of Pelagianism
even in the East, and so wrote not only against its Western
leaders but also against its Antiochean supporters, Nestorius
and Theodore of Mopsuestia (§ 53, 4).
d. =Prosper Aquitanicus=, also a layman and an enthusiastic
follower of Augustine, not only wrote several treatises
against the semi-Pelagians of his native Gaul (§ 53, 5),
but also poured out the vials of his wrath upon them in
poetic effusions (§ 48, 6). He died about A.D. 460.
e. =Cæsarius, bishop of Arelate=, now Arles in Gaul, originally
a monk in the monastery of Larinum, was one of the most
celebrated, most influential, and in church work most
serviceable of the men of his times. It is also mainly
due to him that in A.D. 529 moderate Augustinianism gained
the victory over semi-Pelagianism. He died in A.D. 543.
His treatise _De gratia et libero arbitrio_ is no longer
extant, but two rules for monks and nuns composed by him,
_Ad monachos_, _Ad virgines_, as well as a considerable
number of _Sermones_, the best of their time, are still
preserved.
f. =Fulgentius, bishop of Ruspe= in Africa, on account of
his zeal for the Catholic doctrine, was banished by the
Arian Vandal king Thrasimund, but returned after the
king’s death in A.D. 523. He was one of the stoutest
champions of Augustinianism. His writings against Arians
and semi-Pelagians have been often printed. He died in
A.D. 555. His scholar and biographer was =Fulgentius
Ferrandus=, deacon at Carthage about A.D. 547. Alongside
of and after him we meet with bishop =Facundus= of Hermiane,
and the archdeacon =Liberatus of Carthage=, who with
characteristic African energy defend the _Tria Capitula_
(§ 52, 6) basely surrendered by the Roman bishop Vigilius.
§ 47.21. =Pelagians and semi-Pelagians.=
I. =Pelagius=, a British monk, the originator of the heresy
named after him (§ 53, 3, 4), left behind a considerable
number of writings, of which, however, for the most part
we have now only fragments in the works of his opponents.
References in Augustine, Marius Mercator, and others show
that to him belong the _Lb._ xiv. _Expositionum in Epistt.
Pauli_, which have been ascribed to Jerome and included
among his works, scholia-like explanations with good sound
grammatico-historical exegesis. The wish to make this
useable and safe for the Catholic church led at an early
date to various omissions and alterations in it. Afterwards
its heretical origin was forgotten which notwithstanding
the purifying referred to is still quite discernible. Two
epistles addressed to Roman ladies recommending virginity
have also got a place among the works of Jerome.--=Julianus,
bishop of Eclanum= in Italy, is the only one among the
followers of Pelagius who can be regarded as of scientific
importance. He was an acute but frivolous and vulgar
opponent of Augustine, whom he honoured with the epithets
_amentissimus et bardissimus_ (comp. § 53, 4).